


The Butterfly Effect

by Mimozka



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Butterfly Effect, F/M, Future Fic, Time Travel, Tommy Lives AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-25
Updated: 2014-03-25
Packaged: 2018-01-16 23:39:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1365973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mimozka/pseuds/Mimozka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>sophie1973 said: Olicity/time travel (whatever you want, however you want - the sky is your limit :)</p><p>"I came here to ask you not to go to CNRI, not to save Laurel. I came to ask you to live. I don’t care if you find someone else or you leave Starling and don’t come back, or if despite everything you decide to give me another chance. I just want you to live. For you.” </p>
            </blockquote>





	The Butterfly Effect

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sophie1973](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sophie1973/gifts).



> Sophie you’ve been holding out about your superpowers! You can read minds!!! I swear to Arrow that I just dropped the same prompt in someone else’s inbox… Great minds huh?
> 
> Anyway, I really tried to make this about Olicity, but every time I started, this Tommy - like Koala came at me screaming “NO! THIS IS ABOUT ME!”
> 
> This takes place pre-Undertaking, pre-Laurel sleeping with Oliver, post-Merlance break up.

 

* * *

"Sir, there is a Ms. Lance here to see you." the voice of Tommy’s secretary crackled through the phone. 

Tommy sighed. He hasn’t had such a crappy week since the first months they buried Oliver. His life has turned upside down.

He lost his brother, the woman he loved, his home, and he was suddenly best buds with his father. Tommy was turning into someone he no longer recognized and that realization depressed him even more.

On top of that Oliver’s visit just half an hour ago and the fight that followed managed to destroy what little positivism he’d had about today being a good day.

He really had no energy to deal with Laurel, too.

"Tell her I’m unavailable. Make something up." he told his secretary and reached for the nearest contract he needed to get through.

Imagine his surprise when not fifteen minutes later no other than Laurel Lance burst through the doors to his office.

"How did you get past security?!" he asked sharply, pushing his chair back from his desk. 

He really hoped he wouldn’t have to fight with her.

"Tommy," Laurel’s voice wavered slightly as she took him in. 

He was just like she remembered. Handsome, good, alive. Now she just needed to fix it.

"I know you don’t want to see me, I don’t blame you, I wouldn’t want to see me either, but please just give me thirty minutes. Hear me out and then I’ll be out of your hair and you’ll never see me again, if that’s what you want. I swear." she told him, frozen in her place, afraid that if she took so much as a step forward, he would disappear.

She’s dreamed about this for so long.

Tommy took her in and couldn’t help but think that there was something different about her.The air around her felt different.

He called out to her, telling her to sit down and start talking, but she didn’t seem to hear him.

The way she was looking at him - like a blind man seeing the sun for the first time - was starting to make him uncomfortable.

"Laurel?" He called out to her again, louder this time.

That seemed to do the trick. 

She let out a startled chuckle. “I’m sorry, no one’s called me that in a while.” she ran a hand through his hair. “I just go by Black Canary, nowadays…” 

Tommy couldn’t hide his confusion from her, still he kept quiet and gestured for her to sit down.

"Melinda, hold my calls and tell anyone who wants to see me that I’m out." Tommy said, pressing the button that would connect him with his secretary.

Laurel took a deep breath. “Please just listen to everything I have to say, because I need to get this out. It’s cost me everything I have to get here, and I’m broke every rule in the universe to get to you. Please.” 

Tommy was even more confused now, but he nodded. No matter that he wasn’t with Laurel anymore, he still couldn’t say no to her. He never could.

"Go ahead," he nodded.

"Do you know what the Undertaking is?" Laurel asked him.

Tommy shook his head.

"It’s a plan to level the Glades that your father and Starling’s elite came up with. Well, it’s mostly your father’s idea and the rest of them just went along with it. Destroying the Glades would be his revenge for your mother’s death" Laurel explained, looking Tommy straight in the eye. "He’s going to use two earthquake machines that Queen Consolidated helped develop and he’s going to kill so many people, Tommy."

"He’s going to kill you, too." she added with a whisper and watched the way his face turned pale and his eyes bugged out. "On May 15th 2012 you are going to die in the rubble of CNRI after you saved me from being crushed to death." Laurel’s voice died in her throat and she barely managed to finish her sentence. 

No matter that she’s made peace with her demons a long time ago, Tommy’s death would always weigh on her conscience.

"Earlier that day, Oliver came to me and asked me to stay out of the Glades… And you know me, I don’t like being told what to do. I didn’t listen, I went to CNRI anyway. When the earthquake began I didn’t get out with everyone else. No, I tried to save my work." she let out a bitter laugh and a grimace settled on her features.

"I was stupid and it ended up costing me the only man I’ve ever truly loved." she whispered softly. looking down at her lap.

She could sense that Tommy is about to say something so she looked up and put her hand up to stop him. “Please let me finish.” she said. “We were broken up and haven’t seen each other for two weeks, but you came for me. After I hurt you, you came to save me. You knew where I’d be. But my life is not worth yours, Tommy. It never will be.” 

Laurel took a deep breath in, willing herself to get a grip on her emotions.

"After you died, I…" her vision was starting to blur from the tears that were gathering up in her eyes. "I died with you… I became a shell of the person I used to be. I didn’t smile, I didn’t laugh, I didn’t feel anything… I just drank all day and cried until I ran out of tears. And then I became angry…" she confessed.

"I ended up becoming Black Canary - a female vigilante that makes sure Starling City is a safe place. And I hate who I’ve become, but I don’t have a choice, because it’s the only way I can remember you that wouldn’t tear me in two," Laurel looked at him in the eye as she said it, knowing that this confession could cost her everything. "And before you ask, no, I don’t work with Oliver - yes, I know he’s the Hood - I work alone. And I’m not with him. I could never be. Not after you showed me what it was like to be with you." Laurel couldn’t stop the tears that fell down her cheeks.

"I became Black Canary because I wanted to make sure that no one ever had to suffer through the same loss I have." she confessed to him, wiping away the tears from her cheeks. 

"I came here to ask you not to go to CNRI, not to save Laurel. I came to ask you to live. I don’t care if you find someone else or you leave Starling and don’t come back, or if despite everything you decide to give me another chance. I just want you to  _live. For you.”_

Tommy blinked silently, his brain working extra hard to understand what she’s just told him.

He took her in, really took her in for the first time she walked into his office.

She looked older, wearier, tired and thinner. God, she looked so thin, and not in a healthy way. Her hair was tied back in a bun and her eyes no longer had that sparkle he loved.

She really was different from the Laurel he knew.

But still… She was implying that she’s time traveled to the past. To save him from dying… That’s absurd. Right?

On the other hand, this seemed like an incredibly elaborate and cruel joke to play on someone. And it wasn’t something Laurel would do.

As if she knew what he was thinking, Laurel spoke then, pulling his attention back to her.

"You said you really wanted a kid one day, maybe two - one of each, to keep the balance in the house. But that you were also so afraid to be a father. You didn’t want to turn out like Malcolm or make the same mistakes you did. You didn’t want our children to grow up like you - lost and starved for affection." her voice was quiet as she spoke - as if she was telling him a secret. "You said you wanted to do it all right - the relationship, the marriage, the kids. You wanted us to have it all." 

And Tommy believed her then. Discarding all the doubts about how unlikely it all was.

Because he’s only ever told her that, that one time they were lying in bed together after a particularly bad day.

"And you told me that when we were ready for it, you would be right there with me." Tommy responded, his voice choking up as he echoed her response from that night.

"Always." Laurel sobbed.

"What about CNRI?" He asked despite himself. 

There was no way in hell he could stay at home knowing she - or some version of her - was going to be hurt.

"I’ll take care of that." Laurel vowed, standing up. "Just swear to me, promise me that you won’t go to CNRI. Please." she begged. "Go to Oliver, talk to him. He can keep you safe." 

"I promise." Tommy said, rising from his seat.

Later that night he opened two bottles of whiskey and started drinking. Because that was his way of coping when the world around him stopped making sense.

* * *

 

"Wake up! Wake up!" a voice was demanding somewhere very close to his face.

Tommy wished they would stop. 

He turned to the other side willed himself to ignore the high-pitched voice.

A sharp tug on his hair, put an end to those hopes. 

He opened his eyes to find another pair of smaller blue eyes staring into him.

"Daddy wake up! Wake up!" the small brunette girl bounced in his lap excitedly. 

He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes slowly and then continued to stare at the little blue-eyed girl in wonder.

What the hell? He could swear he was just in his condo, getting drunk.

"Rebecca, go put your shoes on and let Daddy get up." came an amused voice from the doorway.

Tommy’s head tipped to the side and he saw no other than Laurel standing there.

She was a vision. A beautiful, glowing, vision in red. 

He felt his heart stutter when his eyes reached her midsection and he saw the small bump there.

"You okay?" Laurel approached him, a brow furrowing in worry.

"My head hurts…" he groaned. He was also confused as hell.

"Well you and Ollie got so drunk yesterday, I honestly don’t envy Felicity for having to drag him back home." Laurel chuckled. "You’re not 25 anymore, Tommy, your body can’t handle that kind of abuse." she smirked at him.

Tommy blinked at her, for a moment, before it all came back to him.

Last night they had Oliver and Felicity over. They were celebrating. 

He and Laurel just found out they were having a boy and Tommy was beside himself with joy. So he called up his best friend and partner in crime and invited him and his wife over to celebrate.

For some reason, he and Oliver decided to drink for two, what with Felicity and Laurel being unable to, due to their conditions.

Laurel patted him on the shoulder. “Now, come on, get ready before Becca comes back and pushes us out the door. We’re having brunch at Moira’s and our five year old hasn’t seen Robbie in  _two whole days_! - her words not mine.” she chuckled as she leaned in and pressed a kiss to the tip of his nose.

"I love you." Tommy whispered then, unable to hold the words inside any longer.

"We wouldn’t be here if you didn’t," Laurel smiled at him brightly.

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> The end.
> 
> Well that turned out angstier than expected, but I love it. Hope you did too Soph!


End file.
